In 1989, VOCAL Inc NSW was started primarily by Dawn Gilbert, the mother of Tracey Gilbert. Tracey was stalked for months by a boyfriend she had wisely left. Unable to force her to return to the relationship, he murdered her as she worked in her hairdressing salon, in front of her clients. ‘A Domestic Homicide’ they’d call it these days…

Crime Prevention?
Dawn and her family had desperately tried to keep Tracey safe from this man but had found the police response unbelievably inadequate – ‘Not enough proof’ for them to charge him with things they knew he had done, but, no one saw him do them, they were told. The family learned that there had to be enough ‘admissible’ evidence of his threatening and destructive activities before he could be charged with a crime. They discovered a charge had to be ‘proven beyond a reasonable doubt’ in a court of law to satisfy the standard of proof required in a criminal matter.

Tracey’s entire family lived in fear of this man, living on their nerves, on adrenaline fed by disbelief that no one seemed responsible to keep her safe, to end the nightmare, to stop the violence. It went on for months, through many abusive and criminal activities directed at them.

There was never enough ‘evidence’ to ‘prove’ it -to that very high standard.
Not much has changed today – the police still cannot arrest, or even warn alleged perpetrators before ‘something happens’.

The Murder
Although they had been unable to get help from the police before her murder, the grieving family, like so may before them, nevertheless trusted the criminal legal system to ‘get justice for Tracey’ after her callous murder. They were never ever interviewed about what led up to the murder. It wasn’t relevant. Only what he did just prior to the murder was relevant, not how he had made them all suffer.

They discovered that life during and after a crime; even the most serious crime – murder – was nothing at all like they had previously imagined ‘it’ would be like.

Nothing like movies, television, the news or magazine reports at all. Nothing like it.

Despite the wonderful support of friends and family, the Gilbert’s felt alone and isolated – different. They were forced by crime to be learning things they never expected to learn.

As the matter slowly unfolded, Dawn Gilbert reached out for help and found there was none for victims of homicide. She wanted to talk to others – to other mothers whose daughters had been murdered.

Support from Victims
Dawn wanted to talk with people who really knew what she and her family were going through. She found the only really useful, practical support came from those who had, or were also experiencing the same processes, and meeting the same indifference, narrowness and ignorance from the experts in the field of criminal justice.

Dawn found that she was helped somewhat by talking to other family victims of homicide and they benefited from speaking with her. Even today, many ‘experts’ are quite unfamiliar with criminal legal process and fail to effectively support victims through the process.

Justice?
On trial for murder, the accused was found ‘guilty’ and sentenced to ‘Life Imprisonment’. As the family left the court they were asked by the media and others whether they were satisfied with the sentence. They had naturally hoped for a guilty finding, they had hoped for a long, suitable sentence yet they met a new, unforeseen challenge almost immediately. Having focused for so very long on the concept of ‘justice’- the machinations of criminal law, the jury’s decision and finally the sentence, they had all expected to be ‘pleased’.

And yet, as they left the court they found themselves overwhelmed with new learning – realising that a life sentence did not give them back their beloved daughter, sister, niece and friend. They realised – that now their focus was off ”justice’ they faced life forever altered and embittered by this needless, preventable loss. Dawn’s calls to and from other parents continued through this next, new learning, stage.

The Right of Appeal
As is the right of any convicted person in our legal system, the offender appealed the severity of his sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeals. 50% of appeals are successful. The judges on that appeal reduced his sentence. They accepted his argument that at the time he walked into Tracey’s shop, armed with a modified rifle, placed it to her head and shot her in front of her customers ‘that he had been depressed’.

No one in the court process cared if Dawn and her family ‘were depressed’. The system was not, and never is about them and how the crime affected them, or about Tracey and what she lost. During the crime she, like all deceased victims, is not even entitled to her name. She became “the deceased”. The family discovered the system only relates to the needs, rights and rehabilitation of the accused. They were never interviewed about the torment the killer had put them through before the murder. Nothing of his behaviour was relevant – except what was directly related to the murder.

Freedom
This killer served six years in jail and has been free to get on with his life for several years.

Dawn and her family grieve Tracey, every day.